familypediawikiaorg-20200214-history
Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)
__TOC__''' OVERVIEW The following was modified from the Wikipedia aticle on wikipedia:Joseph Alleine. That article incorporated text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. :Joseph Alleine (baptised April 8, 1634 - 17 November 1668) was an English Puritan Nonconformist pastor and author. Joseph was born at Devizes, Suffolk, England early in 1634, he fourth of a large family. His father, the "worthy Mr Tobie Alleine of Devizes", was a descendant of Alan, lord of Buckenhall. Alan's descendants had settled in the neighborhood of Calne and Devizes as early as 1430. :Josephs elder brother, Edward, had trained for the clergy, but died in 1645. Joseph asked his father that he might be educated to succeed his brother in the ministry, and in April 1649 entered Lincoln College, Oxford. He became a scholar of Corpus Christi College on November 3, 1651. He took he took the degree of B.D. on July 6, 1653 and became a tutor and chaplain of Corpus Christi, preferring this to a fellowship. In 1654 he had offers of high preferment in the state, which he declined; but in 1655 George Newton, of the great church of St Mary Magdalene, Taunton, sought him for assistant and Alleine accepted the invitation. Almost coincident with his ordination as associate pastor came his marriage with Theodosia Alleine, daughter of Richard Alleine. Friendships among "gentle and simple" of the former, with Lady Farewell, grand-daughter of the protector Somerset bear witness to the attraction of Alleine's private life. :His public life was a model of pastoral devotion, yet he found time to continue his studies, one monument of which was his Theologia Philosophica (a lost MS.), a learned attempt to harmonize revelation and nature, which was admired by Richard Baxter. Alleine was no mere scholar or divine, but a man who associated on equal terms with the founders of the Royal Society. These scientific studies were, however, kept in subordination to his proper work. He was surprisingly influential for so young a man, and this was thanks to his earnestness and forcefulness. :The year 1662 found senior and junior pastors like-minded, and both were among the two thousand ejected ministers. Alleine, with John Wesley (grandfather of the celebrated John Wesley), also ejected, then travelled about, preaching wherever opportunity was found. For this he was cast into prison, indicted at sessions, bullied and fined. His Letters from Prison were an earlier Cardiphonia than John Newton's. He was released on May 26, 1664; and in spite of the Conventicle, or Five Mile Act, he resumed his preaching. He found himself again in prison, and again and again a sufferer. Worn out by the continued persecution, he died in November 1668; and the mourners, remembering their beloved minister's words while yet with them, "If I should die fifty miles away, let me be buried at Taunton," found a grave for him in St Mary's chancel. No Puritan nonconformist name is so affectionately cherished as is that of Joseph Alleine. His chief literary work was An Alarm to the Unconverted (1672), otherwise known as The Sure Guide to Heaven, which had an enormous circulation. His Remains appeared in 1674. Monument Inscription The inscription on his monument at Taunton Church is given in White, 1902:xix :Hic jacet Dominus Josephus Alleine :Holocaustum Tauntoneuses, et Deo, et vobis Which is literally translated as: :Here lies Master Josephus Alleine :A burnt offering to Taunton, and to God, and to You. but is commonly rendered (somewhat more poetically, but less precisely): :Here Lies Mr. Joseph Alleine :To God and You a Sacrifice The original Latin inscription used the term "holocaustum", which can be translated simply as "sacrifice", but probably has the more precise meaning of "burnt offering". The Oxford Etymological dictionary defines the word "Holocaust" as: :c.1250, "sacrifice by fire, burnt offering," from Gk. holokauston, neut. of holokaustos "burned whole," from holos "whole" (see safe (adj.)) + kaustos, verbal adj. of kaiein "to burn." Originally a Bible word for "burnt offerings," given wider sense of "massacre, destruction of a large number of persons" from 1833. The Holocaust "Nazi genocide of European Jews in World War II," first recorded 1957, earlier known in Heb. as Shoah "catastrophe." The word itself was used in Eng. in ref. to Hitler's Jewish policies from 1942, but not as a proper name for them. Rev. Alleine died at 34 years of age, after much persecution for his faith. The article on him in the 11th edition of the Encyclopeida Britanica describes him in death as Worn out by the continued persecution. This description adds aptness to the reference to a "burnt offering" on his monument. Vita Entry Source/Basis/Commentary Datum<---> DOB: Entry<---> 1633 Cmnt<---> Datum<---> POB: Entry<---> Devises, Wiltshire, England Cmnt<---> will dated October 16,1667; proved Feb 4, 1668-9, by Theodoshia Alliene Datum<---> DOD: Entry<---> 17 Nov. 1668 Cmnt<---> Datum<---> POD: Entry<---> Taunton, England Cmnt<---> Datum<---> Burial: Entry<---> St. Magdalene's, Taunton, England Cmnt<---> Datum<---> Spouse: Entry<---> Theodoshia Alliene Cmnt<---> Datum<---> DOM: Entry<---> 4 Oct 1655 Cmnt<---> Datum<---> POM: Entry<---> Ditcheat, Somerset, England Cmnt<---> Datum<---> Father: Entry<---> Tobias Alleine (bef.1597-?) Cmnt<---> Datum<---> Mother: Entry<---> Elizabeth Northie (c1590-?) Cmnt<---> Ancestry ChildList Name DOB POB DOD POD Spouse DOM POM Notes Isabella Alleine (?-?) This is doubtful. White, 1902:1 is the only known source that makes this connection, though McPheeters, 1842 indicates that Katherine Rutherford (c1682-1738), wife of John Walker II (c1682-1734) was related to Rev. Joseph through her mother, Isabella Alleine. There is reason to believe that Rev. Joseph Rutherford died without children (no children are mentioned in his will), and that if there was a connection, it was not direct. ll. Family History Alternative Interpretation Records NOTES References References cited by Encylopdedia Britanica, 11th edition: 1. Life, edited by Baxter; 2. Joseph Alleine: his Companions and Times, by Charles Stanford (1861); 3. Wood's Athenae, iii. 819; 4. Palmer's None. Mem. iii. 208. Links Research Needs Contributors Category:Non-SMW people articles Category:Created Using Research Template Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Category:Famous people